Statistics about the fire service

1,160,450 firefighters protected the United States in 2015. 345,600 (30%) were career firefighters and 814,850 (70%) were volunteer firefighters.

Most career firefighters (71%) are in communities that protect 25,000 or more people.

Most volunteer firefighters (95%) are in departments that protect fewer than 25,000 and more than half are located in small, rural departments that protect fewer than 2,500 people.

There were 69 firefighter deaths in 2016. The largest share of deaths occurred while firefighters were responding to and returning from alarms (17 deaths), and the next largest share occurred while firefighters were operating at fires (15 deaths), each accounting for one-fifth to one-quarter of the total deaths.

There were 62,085 firefighter injuries in 2016.

24,325 of all firefighter injuries in 2016 occurred during fireground operations. Other firefighter injuries by type of duty include: responding to, or returning from an incident (5,200); training (8,480); non-fire emergency (12,780); and other on-duty activities (11,300).